


Merchant of Death (and beauty and splendor)

by oftheashtree



Series: Greek Mythology AU [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Hades - Freeform, M/M, Persephone - Freeform, the Greek God AU you never knew you needed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 04:55:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11395764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oftheashtree/pseuds/oftheashtree
Summary: (I read a text post on Pinterest about how Persephone found the Underworld on a little frolic through the nearest meadow and decided she liked it there - she wasn't kidnapped or whatever - and all I could think about was a lonely Tony Stark, God of the Underworld, and a plucky pre-serum Steve that didn't go where he was told and fell in love with the rough and tumble mechanic that made beautiful things out of scraps and didn't quite know how to love. Save me.)"And the Greeks feared him more than his husband because Hades could be reasoned with but little Steve Rogers was the fire that fueled the Underworld and the smoke that suffocated sinners."(Also known as "The Author has FEELINGS about Tony Stark being The Merchant of Death and Steve Rogers loving him anyway".)





	Merchant of Death (and beauty and splendor)

Hades was death and flame and the trick of light that followed a rainstorm, making you think you’d seen something that was never really there. Hades was shunned by Zeus and Poseidon, forever the odd man out; too smart for his own good, too dirty with his hair standing up all over the place and engine grease smeared on his clothes. Hades was feared for his brilliance – “The Merchant of Death”, they called him. Hades quite preferred to just be called “Tony”, personally.

  
“Nick,” Tony greeted Zeus familiarly, but Zeus cast a cold glance at his younger, fool-hardy brother and the words that would have followed froze in Tony’s throat.

  
“Haven’t you the dead to mind?” Zeus – for it was Zeus-the-God not Nick-his-brother – sneered. Tony flinched from his brother, casting beseeching eyes at Maria, Zeus’s wife - who went by Hera these days. Maria said nothing.

  
“Of course,” Tony said flippantly. A mask of indifference slid over his face and settled like armor around him. He tossed a heap of scrap metal onto the floor in front of Zeus’s feet. “I only brought a gift for my new nephew. What was his name again?”

  
“Phillip,” Maria offered quietly, but Zeus silenced her, too, with just a look.

  
“Hercules,” Zeus growled. “And he would not want your poor offerings. Leave.”

  
Zeus kicked the scraps away from him and turned away in a flurry of thunder and lightning.

  
Tony was left alone at the top of Mount Olympus with a robot toy he’d named DUMM-E and his own thoughts. He didn’t leave the Underworld very often after that.

  
***

  
Tony spent the years that followed in his workshop, watching the dead come and go. He sent out new inventions, restructured the Underworld ten or twelve times, and set loose a giant robot he’d named JARVIS to keep an eye on everything.

  
It was lonely. So lonely.

  
When Zeus had tricked him out of ruling the Heavens or the Seas, Tony had been quietly pleased. The Underworld, so close to Earth’s core, was the perfect forge for his inventions, and no one really liked it but him so it was quiet, too.

  
At first he’d had company when he wanted it. Pepper, who had been renamed Athena by Zeus, came by frequently to lure him out of his workshop and up into the world with the rest of them. Natasha and Clint – Artemis and Apollo – joined them along with Rhodey and Bruce – Ares and Hermes. Slowly, though, the invitations stopped coming. Tony had been alone for several years before he noticed, and by then it was too late. Zeus had turned them against Tony, intimidated by the creations that emerged from the Underworld and afraid of the implications that the God of the Dead might be a better creator than he.

  
Tony, left with only the ghosts of those who had passed and that which he created with his own two hands, threw himself into his work. He stopped sending his creations out into the world, though. He let Zeus think that he had succumbed and submitted, let Zeus assume that Tony had sunk into his role as gatekeeper of the Underworld. Zeus would have no idea that the Underworld was full to bursting with evidence of Tony’s life and will and passion, and Tony would live out an eternity surrounded by trinkets and the fruits of his labor but with no one to share it with.

  
At least, Tony would have lived out an eternity alone.

  
But Steve Rogers was never good at following the rules.

  
After his first foray into the world of men had ended spectacularly poorly – the tavern still had the story of his epic bar fight etched in the walls – Zeus and Demeter forbid him to leave Mount Olympus. That didn’t last very long. Zeus was heavy-handed and fickle with his affection and Demeter had been a good person before getting sucked into Zeus’s games. Steve wanted nothing to do with them.

  
As a result, he spent his days roaming the countrysides of Earth. He stayed well away from Men who shared this land with him – he’d learned his lesson the first time: fight smarter, not harder. He picked his battles, plotting and striking in the dead of night when Men’s eyes were weak and useless.

  
His slight frame had most of the Men thinking he was a Woman which meant that when Apollo pulled the sun across the sky in the morning (“Thanks Clint!”), Steve was the last person they suspected of kicking their asses the night prior.

  
So Steve was able to stay undercover, traveling the Earth and protecting the innocent by night, frolicking and experiencing the beauty of the world by day.  
And then he found the entrance.

  
It was carefully hidden, he’d give whoever put it there that much. But it was a shimmer at the edge of his vision, just bright enough to catch his eye. He turned his head to look at it and found –

  
Nothing.

  
But he’d been so sure he saw something. Steve turned his head back to face forward once more and –

  
There!

  
In the corner of his eye there was surely a shimmer against the fabric of the Earth. He crept to it, always careful to keep it in the corner of his vision, knowing that if he faced it head on it would disappear. Finally, he reached it and stretched out one hand to feel the edges.

  
His hand caught a doorknob and Steve twisted the knob carefully, surprised to find it opened easily.

  
***

  
Oh what a world unlike any he’d ever seen before.

  
If Steve had thought Earth was beautiful, the place he had just entered was beyond description. The road was paved with steel bricks, the delicate clip clop clip clop of skeletal, metal horses a nice contrast to the spray of water that fell in a crimson curtain every few feet, broken only by short stretches of golden walls. Gears lined the walls, old and discolored but well cared for. Souls of Men long passed rode along in metal carriages pulled by the horses, headed in one direction only.

  
Steve, too curious to care that he was leaving behind the only exit he knew of, grabbed hold of one of the carriages and pulled himself up on one leg to see where it might take him.

  
The carriage took them on a scenic path through this new world. Each turn revealed a greater view than before. Expanses of red silk and golden thread created breathtaking tapestries and luxurious carpets. Metal sculptures only added to the splendor.

  
And everything seemed to be functional, too. The sculptures watched the residents of this new world diligently, searching for any trouble. Steve took extra care to hold still when they passed one of these watchmen – especially after encountering the enormous metal animal that guarded the entrance to what seemed to be the main grounds.  
Tony, tucked safely away in his workshop, wouldn’t have noticed the intruder if JARVIS hadn’t notified him. As it was, JARVIS didn’t miss anything.

  
“Who goes there?” Tony demanded in his best Godly voice.

  
A tufted blond head of hair poked around the edge of one of the carriages. The boy – no, he was a man, if a bit shorter and slimmer than most – hopped from the carriage and strode confidently over to Tony.

  
“Who are you?” Steve asked. “And what is this place?”

  
“I- I asked you first,” Tony responded, caught off guard. Steve shrugged.

  
“I am Hades, God of the Dead,” Tony said grudgingly when it was clear the other man wouldn’t speak.

  
“The Forgotten God,” Steve declared. Tony sneered at the title.

  
“Have they forgotten their feared Merchant of Death so soon?”

  
“Soon?” Steve questioned. “It’s been a thousand years since you were last seen. Zeus no longer remembers your name.”

  
That stung.

 

“Tony,” he spit out. “My name is Tony – Zeus wanted to call me Hades.”

  
“Steve,” the smaller man offered, thrusting out a hand. Tony examined it curiously. Steve dropped it after only a moment. “Show me around?”

  
Tony was taken aback. “You want to see more? Don’t you want to leave?” Like everyone else, he didn’t say.

  
“No,” Steve said. “Do you want me to leave?”

  
“No!”

  
“Good because I wasn’t gonna anyway. Hey what’s that big dog-thing?”

  
Tony’s eyes lit up and he guided Steve gently to a little path that would take them through the entirety of the Underworld. “That’s JARVIS, he’s the security around here.”

  
Tony took Steve through the Underworld, silently rejoicing all the while that finally someone appreciated what he was offering. The trip took a year, but then Steve wanted to go again and see what had changed, so another year passed. They grew closer, slowly but steadily.

  
Steve was taken in by Tony’s heart and his mind. He was enchanted by the light that Tony gave to the Underworld, even if it is a little different, a little darker at times, than the light of the other Gods. Tony was entranced by Steve’s spirit, his determination, his hunger for the new and the good and the just. When Tony slacked on managing the spirits of the dead, Steve took over. He was a fair punisher, always just, never cruel for cruelty’s sake, but gods the man was frightening in action. When Steve needed to explore, to fulfill his adventure-hungry soul, Tony showed him to the nearest exit and let him leave to explore Earth and the ways it had changed.

  
Tony let him go, always prepared for that to be the last he would see of Steve, but it never was. Sometimes Steve took a few years to sate his own curiosity, but he always returned to Tony, always looked for that shimmer out of the corned of his eye that would lead him back to his best friend and – later – husband.

  
Trouble came when Zeus discovered where Steve had been disappearing to and who he had gotten himself married to. Tony feared Zeus’s wrath, but Steve Rogers was no maiden to be trifled with. Steve ripped Zeus apart with the weight of his fury and strength of his love for the forgotten mechanic that ruled the Underworld below. After much war and bloodshed, an agreement was reached: Steve would return to Mount Olympus for only one season each year and could spend the remainder of his time as he wished.

  
Steve and his mechanic ruled the Underworld forevermore, and people feared Hades and the creations he again sent into the Earth periodically, but they feared little Steve Rogers more because his husband, Hades, could be reasoned with but Steve Rogers was the fire that fueled the Underworld and the smoke that suffocated sinners. 


End file.
